ABSTRACT
If we are to believe what sociologists are telling us, the public sphere is in a near terminal state. Our ability to build solidarities with strangers and to agree on the general significance of needs and problems appears to be under threat. Peter Self is worried that the ‘public’ is becoming something of a dirty word. 1 Zygmunt Bauman also has his sights set on defending the modern agora from systematic attacks. Michael Walzer thinks that a vital public culture is absent in contemporary multicultural America, 2 while Alain Touraine has repeatedly warned us about an accelerated crisis in public life. 3 What is this public sphere whose reputed imminent collapse is provoking such anxious concern?
